1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an electric work vehicle including a pair of right and left drive wheels driven independently of each other by the a pair of right and left motors, respectively.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP 2012-075254 A discloses an electric lawn mower (one example of electric work vehicle) which includes a pair of right and left front drive wheels; a motor which distributes rotating drive power to a pair of right/left front drive wheels; a first sensor for detecting a rotating speed of the motor; and a second sensor for detecting a current value of electric current through the motor. In the conventional electric lawn mower, it is determined whether at least one of the wheel is slipping or not based on detection results from at least one of the first sensor and the second sensor. When it is determined that the wheel is slipping, control is performed to reduce torque of the motor. Such behavior contains the wheel slipping to prevent damage on the lawn.
The lawn mower in JP 2012-075254 A is configured to detect slipping based on a change in rotating speed or current value of the motor. The slipping is easily detected if the wheel revolves without making contact with the ground based on significant change in the rotating speed or the current value of the motor. On the other hand, the accuracy of slip detection decreases if the wheel slips or spins around due to a load caused by grass or mud to only slightly change the rotating speed or the current value of the motor.
Under the circumstances, there is a growing demand for providing a technique for properly detecting wheel slipping in an electric work vehicle including a pair of right and left drive wheels driven independently of each other by a pair of right and left motors, respectively.